Aldermen approve preservation law

WAUKEGAN — With essentially no debate, Waukegan aldermen approved a historic preservation ordinance required to complete the city's admission into the Illinois MainStreet Large Cities program.

The debate, city officials said after the vote, had taken place over the course of the past year as a committee of experts from the Waukegan Downtown Association studied similar ordinances on the books in other cities to craft a law suited to Waukegan.

The ordinance approved Monday gives Mayor Dan Drew the go-ahead to appoint seven residents to a commission that will likely spend the next year surveying the city to nominate landmarks and neighborhoods for historic designation. The ordinance gives the final vote to the City Council.

"We're very excited," said Tom Teigen, executive director of the downtown association. "This is a big step forward for Waukegan."

Commissioners, due to be chosen early next year, will target first the downtown area in keeping with the MainStreet program. MainStreet, a national program administered by the states, helps cities to revitalize their downtowns. Waukegan, Elgin and Springfield were the first cities in Illinois with populations greater than 50,000 to be invited into the program.